Sarah Ross, The Shape of a Neighbor(hood)
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Indeed, Design Out Crime seeks to discourage fortress-like architecture and generate designs that invite the kind of positive activity that deters crime.” Here, it is clear that the city sees aesthetics (read innocence) as playing a role in the prevention of crime, again, reinforcing the ideology that the image of productivity matters. Some of the built environment is constructed with crimes like burglary, or worse, rape, in mind, and this act of what I will call ‘exclusionary architecture’ is different than say a bus bench designed to keep people from sleeping- what I will call ‘repellent architecture’. Yet both depend on constructs of the ‘other’, the perpetuation of fear, and a binary conception of public and private spaces. That is, the construction of the ‘other’, as seen in the characterization of people without homes, translates into dangerous or unsafe, which fuels fear and the need to, again, make a strict separation-or- segregation. Wrigley aptly illuminates this by saying, “The point is that the definition of the line between public and private is itself an active participant in the violence occurring on either side of it, whether domestic or public.
We tend to talk most about violence in the streets but if you are going to be hurt or killed, it will probably happen in your house by somebody you have loved or claims to still love you. The private house, a symbol of a withdrawal from the lack of definition and predictability of the public to a space of safety and security, is actually the most dangerous place. It is where you are most likely to die.” Other programs such as the city’s StreetScape Project utilize streets, parks and public spaces to project aesthetics that attract certain populations and discourage others. The StreetScape Project unites local officials, businesses and neighborhood community groups for “enhancement [of sidewalks or streets] for community identity and beautification in the public right of way, including street lights, trees, crosswalks, street furniture, bus stops and landscape plantings.” These programs seem to promote a participatory environment, and relieve the city of some responsibilities, as noted on the Design Out Crime website, “In these tight fiscal times, cities must look beyond traditional policing methods and examine all possible ways to enhance public safety. Cities need to find creative, cost effective ways to stop crime..”. The precondition of such participation is induction into the category of resident, neighbor, citizen. Where the city aims to afford agency to its residents, it makes clear which residents are considered eligible for participation.